Sarri insists he is keen to stay at Chelsea
Maurizio Sarri wants to stay at Chelsea and believes he is the man to close the gap o n P re m i e r League pacesetters Liverpool and Manchester City.
The for mer Napoli coach is confident he can turn Chelsea into title contenders in two years, insisting he is intent on remaining at Stamford Bridge, despite constant speculation linking him with a return to Italy.
Chelsea a re likely to appoint a technical director to bridge the gap between board and coaching staff this summer and it remains to be seen whether Sarri will stay put in west London.
But the 60- year- old former banker remains adamant he can deliver the success craved by the Blues.
“The Premier League is wonderful and I want to remain in the Premier League,” said Sarri.
“I want to remain at Chelsea because the level is very, very high.
“The atmosphere in the stadiums is really fantastic. And so i t ’s a wonderful championship. I’d like to remain here.
“I am sure that, in two seasons, we will be able to be close to Liverpool and Manchester City.
“But I am not sure that, in two seasons, we will be able to be better than them.
“When I arrived in Naples, Napoli were 24 points from Juventus in the table the season before.
“In the first season we arrived to nine points from Juventus, second season to six points, third season to four points.
“For us it was impossible to completely cover the gap, but at the end of the third season we were very close to doing it.”
The Blues can give their quest for a top-four finish a sizeable boost should they win at Manchester United today.
Chelsea still remain subject to a two- window F I FA transfer ban pending the outcome of their appeal, with the option of taking the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport ( CAS) available should the original embargo stand.
Sarri believes Chelsea can still make progress even without new arrivals next t e rm and also claimed a full pre-season to work with the squad could pay big dividends.
“Of course with the market it’s better. But we can improve without the market too, I think,” said Sarri.
And asked if his late arrival last summer stunted progress this term, Sarri continued: “I think so, because we had only two or three weeks for working. And then at the end of August we started to play every three days.
“I needed time to get used to English football.”